April 11th, 2020
Victor and I spent the day doing shorebird surveys in West Tennessee with
most of our time spent in Lake County but also a stop or two in Dyer and
Lauderdale Counties. Overall numbers are way up from last time I was out
here, (over 11,000 shorebirds counted!!!!) but diversity hasn’t improved a
great deal with only SEMIPALMATED PLOVER added as a new species. Here are
the shorebirds in order of abundance;
Pectoral Sandpiper 4880
Lesser Yellowlegs 2640
Greater Yellowlegs 1465
Long-billed Dowitcher 1297
American Golden Plover 808
Dunlin 25
Black-necked Stilt 22
Least Sandpiper 12
Killdeer 8
Solitary Sandpiper 8
Spotted Sandpiper 6
Wilson’s Snipe 4
Wilson’s Phalarope 2
Semipalmated Plover 2
Stilt Sandpiper 1
We also had a few other nice birds while West over the last two days,
including the KING RAIL that was found by Rob Harbin in Fayette County (We
had nearly given up on it but it called for us several times at dusk) and a
VIRGINIA RAIL seen nearer to the road in the same marsh. The CINAMMON TEAL
continues at Black Bayou where Andrew Lydeard originally found it.
In the Black Bayou area we had several SORAS, both species of NIGHT
HERONS, one each of SEDGE and MARSH WRENS and a single lingering LECONTE’S
SPARROW.
Good birding! Ruben Stoll, Centerville Tennessee.
